Trapnomicon (3.5e Other)

Traps. Anyone can make a lava pit, or a spike pit, or one were it summons 30 dire guini pigs and turns you into carrots. But, traps are supossed to be survivable, annoying, and most of all, inconvenient.

Quick note: I am a completely different person than the writer of the dungeonomicon series, and only adding in a couple of nomicons, because authough his dungeonomicon was very extensive, there were a couple of things I thought needed adding. If you see something wrong, or want me to add something, may you please write it in the descusseion page, and not take it upon yourself. Thank you.

Not another death trap....

Listen. Everyone can make these. They are simply, however, pathetic. Traps aren't supposed to kill the party, they are supposed to inflict something on them. proof being, whats worse, large spikes shooting out of the wall, and stabing you to death, or small needals poking out of the walls, poisoning you so that you are nice and unconscious when the goblins/knolls/all powerful cookie overlord(don't ask) come to pick you up. Do you get the point?

The 5 trap elements and how to harness them:

Confusion: Make a 4 way corridor, that radiates a magic aura, because the corridors are just illusions, and when a player goes near one of them, it teleports the party,person creature to the corresponding corridor without the players knowing, and they appear in the illusion doing the exact same thing they are. But here's the rub: everytime the gate is used, the places they teleport swap! DM determines. But, every once in a while, one of them might lead somewhere else entirely..... a phase spiders lair, the throne room of the teddy bear people, the very place you were trying to get to, but without the extra 20 solders there to kill you that would of been periodically sent their if you had gone the right way

Separate: I shall express the first part of this in speech DM: " you see a small hole in the wall which seems to link into a passage" P1: "Hey, insert name here, don't you have a Halfling?" P2: "Oh yeah! Insert Halfling's name here runs through the hole"

You then tell the players how the hole closes up and now the other players and the Halfling and the party must each go through their specific part of the dungeon and the Halfling must do single challenges, and the party must go through areas that they would need the Halfling to make it a lot easier and quicker. In the end, the Halfling will once again remember that teamwork is everything, and the party realizes that they need the Halfling as much as everyone else. #this could be changed so that the Halfling is actually the person the other players think is pathetic,for the exact same reasons.#

Sow chaos: There are two different trap types that fall into this category

TYPE 1: Disorder; Panels on the wall flip into the corridor splitting the party into different sections, and monsters leap into them, attacking the separated players. At the end they should all be alive, but very scared, and run to the nearest room to heal, and be very careful from then on. this could lead them to spring a 'scaredy cat trap' Which I will explain later.

TYPE 2: Distrust; The players find a stone chest with an inscription on it saying "only the strongest may open me" Now, Player 2(the one with the strong character) will smile and say he opens it. You say that a cloud of dust shoots out, obscuring everything but the purple glow coming from the chest. As the glow fades, the dust settles. the chest doesn't really need a strong person to open it, but it will help exponentially. The dust is actually Dust of magic-revealing,( will save DC25 negates) and the purple glow was actually a spirit shown by the dust. For this to work, you have to give each player a piece of paper, and make them understand, they need to keep whats on it to themselves, and try to use the knowledge to their best. The ones going to players 3 and 4 say "you think you saw player 1 glowing as well as the chest, and he seems to be acting a bit... strange" The one going to player 2 says "The spirit leaps inside of you and you feel yourself loosing your grip on your body... You must now act like you would, but make decisions that would most likely kill the rest of the party." monsters will also be able to sense the darkness within him, and will try not to attack him the one going to player 1 says "you think you saw the purple glow go inside player 2, and his face slacken. you think he may be possessed. You must keep your suspicions to yourself until you have gathered enough proof to reveal it to the rest of the players" But you must also note, this won't work if the player says, "I think you are possessed." because then, they will start arguing and your elaborate trust breaking trick will be null. The point of this is, sooner or later, players 3 and 4 will realize they both think the same thing and player 1 will realize that too, yet, eventually, player 2 will be revealed as the possessed, and he will have to attack the rest of the party as the resultant. No, that's the tricky part, as you would have to find a way to make sure that their was no lasting damage, for instance that when he would be unconscious, instead, he glows purple, then the glow shatters, and player 2 slumps unconscious. This won't lead to lasting damage, but it will end up making a shockwave in the world. ( The NPC's will think different of you because of your distrust and bickering.)

Scaredy cat traps (or as I call them, Adam, it can't be that easy traps): The point of these ones, is when Adam realizes that there is a pressure plate under the chair, and he clicks it, the chamber door doesn't open,( like it did) But instead, something horrible happens, like , you are electrocuted, the button blows up or something like that, but the man idea, however, is that, if they feel scared, and open the chest with your 10ft pole, the floor 10ft away drops into a pit doing a little damage, but the floor 5ft away stays there. This means, that even if they are scared of traps, then they can't avoid them, because if they try, it might be one of these traps

The 'oh sh.. traps: At the beginning of this, I told you that death traps full of spikes and dragons are bad. Well now I am changing that, to: Death traps full of spikes and dragons are bad, to some extent. My reasoning for this, is that you need to scare the players every once in a while, or they'll realize that no traps are actually going to result in harm. so, these are the ones where they open a door, and lava cascades into the room, and you have to find the way out and/or battle the fire elementals that came in with the lava to escape.

Awarding players escapes

Hey! Have you set off a trap and escaped alive? Have you been a victim of sneaky pit diggers? If so, You could deserve some treasure. to find out more, read the rest of this article.

You see, no-one likes to open a chest and end up in a pickle, or to a lesser and less vinegary extent, a trap. So, if they do open a chest, and a trap is set of, then there should be a reward, be it allowance to the next bit of the dungeon, or a secret door, or maybe even a new sword with special qualities (magic, sharp, adamantite, ect)

Putting traps in your dungeon

Traps can add a sence of danger to your dungeon. It adds flavor, texture, and maybe some sprinkles to the cake of adventure. But, if the trap doesn't work, said cake might turn out to be a burrito. Traps can be to weak, and the treasure to good, or to powerful to survive, and for a mieger 20 gold. Before you put a trap into your dungeons, you need to consider these facts.

Over-powered? or just pathetic? A good way to test this, is taking the players charectars, and testing this out. Either call one of your friends over, or test it your-self. you need to put yourself in the mindset of the players, and not just go, I put the off switch under that toad, so i'll use it. you instead need to act like the players. I do a serch cheak to find an off switch. I look for a way out, ect.

Long and short term effects. You can't just go, ok, that's survivable, i'll add a +2 sword to the treasure instead of that 7 charges wand of 5th magic missile. That IS NOT OK! A strong 7 charge wand is ok, as it isn't permanent and there is only a certain amount of times you can use the powerful power, And while it may do more damage than the +2 sword, the +2 sword is a permanent weapon, which will tip the baleens of the game. You can read more about balancing PC's in the DMG. So, before putting in an item, think of not only the short term, but the long term, and If you'll regret the decicion you made.

Conclusion

In this Section of Aedo's Dungeonomicon 2, you have learnt how to harness the different elements to trap making, how to award players fittingly, and how to determine the correct amount of treasure to give to the players and not set a tonne of god forsaken death traps, that will just ruin the entire game play. (But, even after telling my brother all of this, he still thinks a trap where your running from a minotour and fall into a pit of lave to be a brilliant trap, even better than any of the ones listed here as examples.)

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